CHAPTER XXXI.

ADVENTURES OF AENEAS- THE HARPIES- DIDO- PALINURIUS.

ADVENTURES OF AENEAS.

WE have followed one of the Grecian heroes, Ulysses, in his
wanderings on his return home from Troy, and now we propose to share
the fortunes of the remnant of the conquered people, under their chief
AEneas, in their search for a new home, after the ruin of their native
city. On that fatal night when the wooden horse disgorged its contents
of armed men, and the capture and conflagration of the city were the
result, AEneas made his escape from the scene of destruction, with his
father, and his wife, and young son. The father, Anchises, was too old
to walk with the speed required, and AEneas took him upon his
shoulders.* Thus burdened, leading his son and followed by his wife,
he made the best of his way out of the burning city; but, in the
confusion, his wife was swept away and lost.

* See Proverbial Expressions, no. 9.

On arriving at the place of rendezvous, numerous fugitives, of
both sexes, were found, who put themselves under the guidance of
AEneas. Some months were spent in preparation, and at length they
embarked. They first landed on the neighboring shores of Thrace, and
were preparing to build a city, but AEneas was deterred by a
prodigy. Preparing to offer sacrifice, he tore some twigs from one
of the bushes. To his dismay the wounded part dropped blood. When he
repeated the act a voice from the ground cried out to him, "Spare
me, AEneas; I am your kinsman, Polydore, here murdered with many
arrows, from which a bush has grown, nourished with my blood." These
words recalled to the recollection of AEneas that Polydore was a young
prince of Troy, whom his father had sent with ample treasures to the
neighbouring land of Thrace, to be there brought up, at a distance
from the horrors of war. The king to whom he was sent had murdered him
and seized his treasures. AEneas and his companions, considering the
land accursed by the stain of such a crime, hastened away.

They next landed on the island of Delos, which was once a floating
island, till Jupiter fastened it by adamantine chains to the bottom of
the sea. Apollo and Diana were born there, and the island was sacred
to Apollo. Here AEneas consulted the oracle of Apollo, and received an
answer, ambiguous as usual,- "Seek your ancient mother; there the race
of AEneas shall dwell, and reduce all other nations to their sway."
The Trojans heard with joy and immediately began to ask one another,
"Where is the spot intended by the oracle?" Anchises remembered that
there was a tradition that their forefathers came from Crete and
thither they resolved to steer. They arrived at Crete and began to
build their city, but sickness broke out among them, and the fields
that they had planted failed to yield a crop. In this gloomy aspect of
affairs AEneas was warned in a dream to leave the country and seek a
western land, called Hesperia, whence Dardanus, the true founder of
the Trojan race, had originally migrated. To Hesperia, now called
Italy, therefore, they directed their future course, and not till
after many adventures and the lapse of time sufficient to carry a
modern navigator several times round the world, did they arrive there.

Their first landing was at the island of the Harpies. These were
disgusting birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and
faces pale with hunger. They were sent by the gods to torment a
certain Phineus, whom Jupiter had deprived of his sight, in punishment
of his cruelty; and whenever a meal was placed before him the
Harpies darted down from the air and carried it off. They were
driven away from Phineus by the heroes of the Argonautic expedition,
and took refuge in the island where AEneas now found them.

When they entered the port the Trojans saw herds of cattle roaming
over the plain. They slew as many as they wished and prepared for a
feast. But no sooner had they seated themselves at the table than a
horrible clamour was heard in the air, and a flock of these odious
harpies came rushing down upon them, seizing in their talons the
meat from the dishes and flying away with it. AEneas and his
companions drew their swords and dealt vigorous blows among the
monsters, but to no purpose, for they were so nimble it was almost
impossible to hit them, and their feathers were like armour
impenetrable to steel. One of them, perched on a neighbouring cliff,
screamed out, "Is it thus, Trojans, you treat us innocent birds, first
slaughter our cattle and then make war on ourselves?" She then
predicted dire sufferings to them in their future course, and having
vented her wrath flew away. The Trojans made haste to leave the
country, and next found themselves coasting along the shore of Epirus.
Here they landed, and to their astonishment learned that certain
Trojan exiles, who had been carried there as prisoners, had become
rulers of the country. Andromache, the widow of Hector, became the
wife of one of the victorious Grecian chiefs, to whom she bore a
son. Her husband dying, she was left regent of the country, as
guardian of her son, and had married a fellow-captive, Helenus, of the
royal race of Troy. Helenus and Andromache treated the exiles with the
utmost hospitality, and dismissed them loaded with gifts.

From hence AEneas coasted along the shore of Sicily and passed the
country of the Cyclopses. Here they were hailed from the shore by a
miserable object, whom by his garments, tattered as they were, they
perceived to be a Greek. He told them he was one of Ulysses'
companions, left behind by that chief in his hurried departure. He
related the story of Ulysses' adventure with Polyphemus, and
besought them to take him off with them as he had no means of
sustaining his existence where he was but wild berries and roots,
and lived in constant fear of the Cyclopses, While he spoke Polyphemus
made his appearance; "a terrible monster, shapeless, vast, whose
only eye had been put out."* He walked with cautious steps, feeling
his way with a staff, down to the seaside, to wash his eye-socket in
the waves. When he reached the water, he waded out towards them, and
his immense height enabled him to advance far into the sea, so that
the Trojans, in terror, took to their oars to get out of his way.
Hearing the oars, Polyphemus shouted after them, so that the shores
resounded, and at the noise the other Cyclopses came forth from
their caves and woods and lined the shore, like a row of lofty pine
trees. The Trojans plied their oars and soon left them out of sight.

* See Proverbial Expressions, no. 10.

AEneas had been cautioned by Helenus to avoid the strait guarded
by the monsters Scylla and Charybdis. There Ulysses, the reader will
remember, had lost six of his men, seized by Scylla while the
navigators were wholly intent upon avoiding Charybdis. AEneas,
following the advice of Helenus, shunned the dangerous pass and
coasted along the island of Sicily.

Juno, seeing the Trojans speeding their way prosperously towards
their destined shore, felt her old grudge against them revive, for she
could not forget the slight that Paris had put upon her, in awarding
the prize of beauty to another. "In heavenly minds can such
resentments dwell!"* Accordingly she hastened to AEolus, the ruler
of the winds,- the same who supplied Ulysses with favouring gales,
giving him the contrary ones tied up in a bag AEolus obeyed the
goddess and sent forth his sons, Boreas, Typhon, and the other
winds, to toss the ocean. A terrible storm ensued and the Trojan ships
were driven out of their course towards the coast of Africa. They were
in imminent danger of being wrecked, and were separated, so that
AEneas thought that all were lost except his own.

* See Proverbial Expressions no. 11.

At this crisis, Neptune, hearing the storm raging, and knowing
that he had given no orders for one. raised his head above the
waves, and saw the fleet of AEneas driving before the gale. Knowing
the hostility of Juno, he was at no loss to account for it, but his
anger was not the less at this interference in his province. He called
the winds and dismissed them with a severe reprimand. He then
soothed the waves, and brushed away the clouds from before the face of
the sun. Some of the ships which had got on the rocks he prised off
with his own trident, while Triton and a sea-nymph, putting their
shoulders under others, set them afloat again. The Trojans, when the
sea became calm, sought the nearest shore, which was the coast of
Carthage, where AEneas was so happy as to find that one by one the
ships all arrived safe, though badly shaken.

Waller, in his "Panegyric to the Lord Protector" (Cromwell), alludes
to this stilling of the storm by Neptune:

"Above the waves, as Neptune showed his face,
To chide the winds and save the Trojan race,
So has your Highness, raised above the rest,
Storms of ambition tossing us repressed."

DIDO.

Carthage, where the exiles had now arrived, was a spot on the
coast of Africa opposite Sicily, where at that time a Tyrian colony
under Dido, their queen, were laying the foundations of a state
destined in later ages to be the rival of Rome itself. Dido was the
daughter of Belus, king of Tyre, and sister of Pygmalion, who
succeeded his father on the throne. Her husband was Sichaeus, a man of
immense wealth, but Pygmalion, who coveted his treasures, caused him
to be put to death. Dido, with a numerous body of friends and
followers, both men and women, succeeded in effecting their escape
from Tyre, in several vessels, carrying with them the treasures of
Sichaeus. On arriving at the spot which they selected as the seat of
their future home, they asked of the natives only so much land as they
could enclose with a bull's hide. When this was readily granted, she
caused the hide to be cut into strips, and with them enclosed a spot
on which she built a citadel, and called it Byrsa (a hide). Around
this fort the city of Carthage rose, and soon became a powerful and
flourishing place.

Such was the state of affairs when AEneas with his Trojans arrived
there. Dido received the illustrious exiles with friendliness and
hospitality. "Not unacquainted with distress," she said, "I have
learned to succour the unfortunate."* The queen's hospitality
displayed itself in festivities at which games of strength and skill
were exhibited. The strangers contended for the palm with her own
subjects, on equal terms, the queen declaring that whether the
victor were "Trojan or Tyrian should make no difference to her."*(2)
At the feast which followed the games, AEneas gave at her request a
recital of the closing events of the Trojan history and his own
adventures after the fall of the city. Dido was charmed with his
discourse and filled with admiration of his exploits. She conceived an
ardent passion for him, and he for his part seemed well content to
accept the fortunate chance which appeared to offer him at once a
happy termination of his wanderings, a home, a kingdom, and a bride.
Months rolled away in the enjoyment of pleasant intercourse, and it
seemed as if Italy and the empire destined to be founded on its shores
were alike forgotten. Seeing which, Jupiter despatched Mercury with
a message to AEneas recalling him to a sense of his high destiny,
and commanding him to resume his voyage.

* See Proverbial Expressions, no. 12.

*(2) See Proverbial Expressions, no. 13.

AEneas parted from Dido, though she tried every allurement and
persuasion to detain him. The blow to her affection and her pride
was too much for her to endure, and when she found that he was gone,
she mounted a funeral pile which she had caused to be erected, and
having stabbed herself was consumed with the pile. The flames rising
over the city were seen by the departing Trojans, and, though the
cause was unknown, gave to AEneas some intimation of the fatal event.

The following epigram we find in "Elegant Extracts":

FROM THE LATIN.

"Unhappy, Dido, was thy fate
In first and second married state!
One husband caused thy flight by dying,
Thy death the other caused by flying."

PALINURUS.

After touching at the island of Sicily, where Acestes, a prince of
Trojan lineage, bore sway, who gave them a hospitable reception, the
Trojans re-embarked, and held on their course for Italy. Venus now
interceded with Neptune to allow her son at last to attain the
wished-for goal and find an end of his perils on the deep. Neptune
consented, stipulating only for one life as a ransom for the rest. The
victim was Palinurus, the pilot. As he sat watching the stars, with
his hand on the helm, Somnus sent by Neptune approached in the guise
of Phorbas and said: "Palinurus, the breeze is fair, the water smooth,
and the ship sails steadily on her course. Lie down awhile and take
needful rest. I will stand at the helm in your place." Palinurus
replied, "Tell me not of smooth seas or favouring winds,- me who
have seen so much of their treachery. Shall I trust AEneas to the
chances of the weather and the winds?" And he continued to grasp the
helm and to keep his eyes fixed on the stars. But Somnus waved over
him a branch moistened with Lethaean dew, and his eyes closed in spite
of all his efforts. Then Somnus pushed him overboard and he fell:
but keeping his hold upon the helm, it came away with him. Neptune was
mindful of his promise and kept the ship on her track without helm
or pilot, till AEneas discovered his loss, and, sorrowing deeply for
his faithful steersman, took charge of the ship himself.

There is a beautiful allusion to the story of Palinurus in Scott's
"Marmion," Introduction to Canto I., where the poet, speaking of the
recent death of William Pitt, says:

"O, think how, to his latest day,
When death just hovering claimed his prey,
With Palinure's unaltered mood,
Firm at his dangerous post he stood;
Each call for needful rest repelled,
With dying hand the rudder held,
Till in his fall, with fateful sway,
The steerage of the realm gave way."

The ships at last reached the shores of Italy, and joyfully did
the adventurers leap to land. While his people were employed in making
their encampment AEneas sought the abode of the Sibyl. It was a cave
connected with a temple and grove, sacred to Apollo and Diana. While
AEneas contemplated the scene, the Sibyl accosted him. She seemed to
know his errand, and under the influence of the deity of the place,
burst forth in a prophetic strain, giving dark intimations of
labours and perils through which he was destined to make his way to
final success. She closed with the encouraging words which have become
proverbial: "Yield not to disasters, but press onward the more
bravely."* AEneas replied that he had prepared himself for whatever
might await him. He had but one request to make. Having been
directed in a dream to seek the abode of the dead in order to confer
with his father, Anchises, to receive from him a revelation of his
future fortunes and those of his race, he asked her assistance to
enable him to accomplish the task. The Sibyl replied, "The descent
to Avernus is easy: the gate of Pluto stands open night and day; but
to retrace one's steps and return to the upper air, that is the
toil, that the difficulty."*(2) She instructed him to seek in the
forest a tree on which grew a golden branch. This branch was to be
plucked off and borne as a gift to Proserpine, and if fate was
propitious it would yield to the hand and quit its parent trunk, but
otherwise no force could rend it away. If torn away, another would
succeed.*(3)

* See Proverbial Expressions, no. 14.

*(2) See Proverbial Expressions, no. 15.

*(3) See Proverbial Expressions, no. 16.

AEneas followed the directions of the Sibyl. His mother, Venus, sent
two of her doves to fly before him and show him the way, and by
their assistance he found the tree, plucked the branch, and hastened
back with it to the Sibyl.